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Beautiful Wellington Welcome Pavilion glows like a lantern at night

Calgary-based architecture firm Studio North led a team of architecture students from the University of Toronto Daniels School of Architecture in a design build seminar to realize a stunning new Welcome Pavilion for the village of Wellington, Ontario. Erected in just two weeks, the compact 100-square-foot structure is both sculptural and functional, featuring geometric CNC-milled cutouts inspired by barn quilts, a local craft and tradition unique to that area. The Welcome Pavilion offers shelter, seating and shelving for maps, pamphlets and information about Wellington and Prince Edward County.

Sessional Professors Mark Erickson and Matthew Kennedy of Studio North led—with the help of teaching assistant Allison Home-Douglas—a team of fifteen undergraduate architecture students through the design-build process. The design was developed in collaboration with the local community, who taught the team about the village’s traditional culture and crafts.

“The design is inspired by barn quilts; a local craft and tradition unique to the county,” explains Studio North in a project statement. “These quilts have colourful geometric patterns that express the character and quality of the place, akin to family crests that distinguish one building from the next. We used the geometric language of these quilt patterns as inspiration for the CNC milled plywood screens that wrap the entire building. These screens paint the middle dividing wall with intricate shadows that transform throughout the day and the season.”

The 100-square-foot Welcome Pavilion was built primarily of CNC-milled plywood and semi-translucent polycarbonate, which allows diffused sunlight to pass through. The interior is split into two parts: one half that serves as a covered outdoor public space with benches and a town map; the other half houses the promotional materials. The backside of the plywood screen in the interior was painted with bright colors that, when illuminated by sunlight, fill the space with colorful light.